If you think you’ve got what it takes to win the cash prizes the time to sign up is now! Even though people come in from all over the state to play AND it’s the longest running vegetarian chili cook-off in the world Austin almost always wins and it sure would be sad if we lost to someone from Round Rock or Dallas so get your teams together and sign up. The event is going to be tons of fun, with all sorts of live music and different vendors.

One reason I started to write this blog was to write about things that were on my mind. Another reason was to share information. Usually it stays on the topic of veganism but, for me, veganism is part of a larger picture. Social Justice, Animal Welfare, Feminism, Environmentalism, Humanism, and most of all, so much fucking love in my heart are all the foundation of it.

Everything is interconnected. Some would even say there is a metapattern to it all. (Full disclosure: the first class I ever took at Evergreen was called metapatterns cause that’s the kind of school I went to).

That makes it hard to talk about just one thing. I have always had what some would refer to as a bleeding heart. I’ve been writing letters to politicians, school officials, and companies since I was a little kid. In addition to this, I can get really fired up really quickly. That latter quality can make it really difficult for me to get into arguments. I get so hot and it can last for days. Sometimes I can direct that passion into action and that’s why I wanted to write a better post about why I am pro-choice and why I think you should be too.

Aside from closing clinics under the guise of protecting women’s health another aspect of the Texas bill is that women will no longer have the option of getting an abortion after the 20th week. The supposed reason behind this new law is that at that point the fetus can feel pain. Like many many scientists, I don’t know what it is like for a fetus to feel pain. I don’t remember my time as a fetus. Is it more like how a toddler, a spider, a cow, a piglet, a piece of kale, or a shrimp feels pain? I have no idea. Scientists are certainly not even agreed on if a fetus feels pain at all. But I do know that the woman who needs to have an abortion in her 2nd trimester is suffering. 99 percent of all women who have abortions do it before twenty weeks. The women who have an abortion after are usually women that wanted a baby. Maybe they have already been thinking about names and designing the nursery. Why do they wait 20 weeks into their pregnancy? When they are already probably showing a baby bump?

This is what we mean when we say the decision to have an abortion should be between a woman and her doctor. It’s not just a cute phrase. I think a second term abortion the hardest decision many women ever face. These are the vast majority of this one percent of abortions. If you watched the public testimonies a few weeks ago you no doubt saw some heartbreaking stories of women talking about going through this process. Another unintended aspect of the twenty week ban will undoubtedly be that women have an abortion before they can fully decide if they want to try and keep the baby because they know they will lose the option soon. Read a friend of mine’s story about being in this very situation.

In addition to these women’s health issues there are also women’s rights issues involved. Something I don’t really see anti-choice advocates talk about is bodily autonomy. They see the fetus as a life and that it should have the right to be alive no matter what its host’s body wants. But a woman is more than just a host. She is an American citizen and she has the right to do what she wants with her body. That’s why stealing someone’s kidney’s is illegal. You couldn’t tell a judge “well I needed the kidney to live and the woman has two of them anyway”. A woman can donate her kidney the same way she can have a baby, with consent and probably help from her doctor. No one demands people risk their lives through medical procedures that are unnecessary for them to save some else’s life. This is why women are allowed to decide whether or not that they are going to give birth to a baby.

You don’t have to support abortion to be pro-choice. That’s why it’s called pro-choice instead of pro-abortion. You just have to believe that other women can make their own decisions on what they are going to do with their own body.

So today I am going to go down to the capital and wear orange scream my guts out. Even though I know that Rick Perry loves to hear women scream and that it shows him how well he’s doing his job. When people in our society start to lose their rights, we all lose.

If it was 20 years ago and my friend Sandra was here we could have a sleepover and talk about boys and who would look best in a tux too. As an adult I am now eating pizza and painting my nails for political reasons. Oh, and I’m meeting with a team of Taco Scientists. You never know where your life will take you.

Living under the rule of an evil Republican super majority in Texas can be very disheartening. These totally corrupt officials continually make life for everyone in our state increasingly more difficult. Our privileged blue state compatriots in the rest of the country write off what happens in our state and laugh about how we are just backwards jerks that don’t deserve healthcare or factory safety regulations or education because we are stupid enough to keep voting these fuckers in. Well, you know what non-Texans? It isn’t that easy to fight against their racket when all the decks are stacked against you. These people keep getting elected because they have gerrymandered the state into such a mess of cockeyed districts that the white evangelical voters have more voting power than they should in a state with so many people that live in cities, women, Mexican-Americans, and African Americans. The people in charge of this state work so hard to disenfranchise poor people that it can some times seem impossible to fight them, they have all the money and the power and they use it to make sure people that don’t agree with them can’t vote, aren’t educated, don’t have good jobs, and have to spend every minute of their lives struggling to get by. In some cases they are too exhausted to even realize that things could be another way. The media talks about our low voter turnout but, from my perspective, the apathy comes from continually witnessing such a corrupt system. It’s very demoralizing.

That’s why Wendy Davis’ filibuster was so inspiring to me and so many of my allies. Here was a woman literally standing up against these men that have made life so hard for so many and just want to make it worse for their own twisted reasons. As the filibuster went on and she schooled all these pathetic senators on why women’s healthcare is so important more and more people started watching the livesteam and heading down to the capital. When she got stopped for a third illogical reason we had to start drinking. Then the democrats stalling tactics attempting to run out the clock had me frantically checking twitter and the clock thinking they couldn’t possibly keep this up. After being repeatedly ignored Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, said “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?” I immediately started cheering along with thousands of others all over the state and also with the people cheering in the capital who screamed so loud and so long that they STOPPED THE BILL from being about to pass. After so many years of reading about Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, and Molly Ivins to see there was still hope for women in Texas made me feel an incredible sense of elation. I know Dick Perry has called another special session and evil will probably prevail this next time but for that one day we got a glimpse of where the future could be. The internet went nuts.

To celebrate and gear up for the next week I’m dying to get a ridiculous manicure that even supports planned parenthood. When I wrote Nails Y’all to see if her products were vegan too she wrote back:

Thank you for your interest + support! I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of such amazing, passionate, and inspiring ladies who want to show their support for women’s healthcare in Texas. Unfortunately, all appointments for the Hands Off fundraising manis are booked. But don’t despair! Here are a few ways that you can still get in on the action:

Get a set of your very own DIY Wendy Davis nail decals! You can totally take control of your own nails with these babies. Each kit contains 12 nail decals, Q-tips, and easy-to-follow instructions. Each kit is $25, and $10 goes directly to Planned Parenthood! To purchase a kit, contact me via email to pick it up in person, or head over to Etsy. In addition, I’ll have kits available Sunday, 6/30 at East Side Show Room (1100 E. 6th) from 7pm to midnight. Spread the word!

Nails Y’all + Planned Parenthood are working to make it easy for you make tax-free donations to support women’s health in Texas. If you’d like more information about donating to the cause, shoot me an email.

For future manis, book an appointment with me at Paloma. (Wendy’s are in my rotation, now!) And we use locally made, vegan products! More of my nail designs can be seen via Tumblr and Instagram (@nailsyall).

I’m sorry that I was unable to accommodate your request, but I am so thankful that so many ladies reached out to fight the good fight through nail art.

Also this Saturday will be the return of Hippie Vegan Bull$#!*. The last one got rained out but I don’t seen that happening here for the last weekend of June, here is the scoop:

Hippie Vegan Bull$#!* – Saturday, June 29 from noon to 7pm – is a free, family-friendly & dog-friendly celebration of all things peaceful, organic, and weird in Austin.

The Empire parking lot will be home to a local vegan marketplace featuring ice cream by Sweet Ritual, vegan sausages, hot dogs & burgers from The Hot Dog King and, sweets from Capital City Bakery. The garage will host vendors selling miscellaneous hippie bull$#!* including professional tie-dye and demonstrations & training from Texas Footbag, YogaSlackers & Keep Austin Slacklining. The garage will also serve as our bicycle & skateboard valet as well as the home of our massive group finger painting mural.

The patio will host a yoga class by Wanderlust at 4pm, drum spheres (bring your hand-drums), and Frisbee. The Control Room will transform into the Crash Pad where music-lovers can participate in an improvised jam on-stage (so bring your instruments & musical friends!) Those who want to chill can enjoy the show from the air-conditioned comfort of couches, cold beverage in hand, all while surrounded by 300 degrees of trippy, psychedelic projections. Facebook Event – http://www.hippieveganbs.com

Instead of wallowing in depression I’m going to try and raise some awareness for Lucky the elephant. Lucky was a wild elephant who was captured in Thailand and brought to the San Antonio zoo. Over the years she has watched as her companions have all died and now she is the last of her kind. Female elephants aren’t supposed to ever be alone. In the wild they always travel in packs. When they pass a spot where one of their number died, they stop and take a moment to mourn. Here is a video where you can watch them. Even many years later they will stop at the same spot. Elephants are giant animals and they also need a lot of space. In the jungle they actually make the paths that all the other animals follow on their never ending quests for food.

The San Antonio zoo doesn’t really have enough room for one elephant, much less two. It could be that these substandard arrangements have led to the death of so many of Luck’s companions. They are trying to petition their own trade organization to break it’s rules and keep Lucky by herself from now on.

One World Conservation says “According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) guidelines, elephants should not be kept alone in captivity. It’s emotionally traumatizing. That’s why we’re asking that Lucky be removed from the San Antonio Zoo and sent to a facility that offers social grouping, natural substrates, strictly enforced protected contact management, high-end veterinary care, and the space to better meet the needs of her species.”

If you look at my tweet cloud of the words I say the most “excited” is by far the number one. I’m usually excited about something. If I’m not, I get completely melancholy about how I have nothing to look forward to. For Texas Vegfest I think I might have just been too excited, I missed it last year because it was my bff’s wedding and thought that was one of the best events of my life, missing vegfest and hearing all about it just built up the anticipation even more for this year’s fest.. The night before I went to ATX Vegan Drinks with my friends from North Austin Vegans and had a fun time playing trivia even though my team abandoned me for the final round. Saturday was a freaking gorgeous day and by the time I finally got to the fest I’d already missed some events and sat down to see Dr. Montgomery talk about cardiology.

He was a great speaker, he talked a lot about how preventable heart disease is just by cutting back meat and that a lot of people know that and just replace beef with chicken. It’s not enough! He was dressed in his surgeons gear just in case any meat eaters showed up. I wanted to pay close attention but I just couldn’t sit still. I really wanted to get a shirt from Herbivore before they sold out. Then I got distracted by tacos.

Good Karma Kitchen had rolled in from Fort Worth to bring us their delicious tacos and noodle dishes. I got the barbecued Korean tacos with jalapeno cream sauce, sliced vegetables, and ginger pickles and they were amazing, and my favorite thing I ate all day.

I couldn’t believe the line for Arlo’s next door was a million times longer since Arlo’s is usually parked just down the street. They do have my favorite veggie burger in the world and people were waiting over an hour! I went looking for the Herbivore booth after trying some tempeh on a stick and then I ran into friends who wanted something sweet. We headed to Sinfull Bakery, I was stoked to finally try their Kolache after not being able to find one on a recent trip to Houston. I also tried one of their dark chocolate cookies and both were fabulous.

There were 5,000 people there and I saw so many folks that I have met over the years. It was sweet to see so many kids.

Actually, my favorite story of the whole day was hearing about a teacher that brought a group of her school children to volunteer for the day. Apparently she takes them to different places every other weekend to help out in the community and they had never even heard the word vegetarian before. They were really excited to see Omowale talk about boxing and wanted to try some of the food, but the teacher didn’t have the money buy them all expensive festival food and mentioned she would have to take them somewhere cheap like KFC. The Texas Vegfest staff heard about this and pitched in to buy them awesome local food from the vendors and they loved it! Meanwhile I was spending tons and tons of money gorging myself and Dan. I got him a plate from Aster’s Ethiopian because we don’t get up there enough and we love it.

We got to watch a very happy young lady dance for a while before she was joined by others,

But then I remembered I wanted to hear Colleen Patrick-Goudreau speak about how we are all taught to have compassion for animals but then we are taught to eat them too. She such an inspiring speaker. If you are considering trying to go veg I recommend checking out her 30 day program and her cookbooks. Halfway through the talk I remembered that I still hadn’t gotten my Herbivore T-shirt and by that time they had ran out of the one I wanted! Damnit! At least I’ll be in Portland soon enough. I drowned my sorrows in funnel cake.

and I got completely covered in powdered sugar.

The funnel cake completely did me in and I bought more treats for later.

And I missed so many other places I wanted to try. Mostly Unity Vegan Kitchen which I head everyone raving about. And the Happy Vegan Baker’s Mac & Cheese. And Capital City’s Cheesecake. And Counter Culture’s Sweet Potato Salad. And Sweet Ritual’s Salted Carmel ice cream in a Waffle Cone. There was a lot of food. I was so sunburned and exhausted I had to go home. It was all too much. As we were walking out Dan said, “you know the only vegan I didn’t see was Wes” and then there he was, waving to us goodbye Big Tex style.

I still haven’t caught up with sleep and chores from South by Southwest last week and now, here we are gearing up for another festival Texas VegFest! We just never stop celebrating in Austin Texas. I think it will be a little bit more chill than last week but a great time with all sorts of food and speakers to entertain and educate us. I am so excited that I caught up with my pal, board member and fellow blogger Molly of the Lonestar Plate to learn some details.

So Molly, can you tell me a little about your role in the festival this year?

This year, in addition to my role as a board member of Texas Veg Foundation (the group that organizes the festival), I’m in charge of social media. As a board member I have a really macro view of the festival, looking at the overall schedule, content, reach, advertising strategy, and so on. But I’m also the person tweeting at everyone to come volunteer. (Really, sign up to volunteer. It will be fun!)

What are some of the differences between this year’s festival and last one, (besides that I will get to go to this one?)

This one is bigger, in terms of expected attendees, number of vendors, and the kinds of activities we can provide. We have almost a hundred vendors, six bands, and a ton more kids’ activities (tennis! yoga! cooking demos!). This year’s festival is more local. Due to some logistical issues last year, many of Austin’s vegan and vegetarian restaurants and food carts couldn’t attend. This year just about all of our food vendors are small, local businesses. And of course, our Premier Sponsor is Wheatsville Co-op. I also think this year’s group of speakers is a bit more diverse, which was a big goal for us this year. The vegan demographic is white, female, and young-to-middle age. And that’s not because that’s what it takes to be vegan; it’s because we’re not doing a good enough job reaching out to other demographics.

So tell me about the speakers that I as a white, young-to-middle age female might not know about.

We have six fantastic speakers this year. Omowale Adewale is a champion vegetarian boxer from NYC. In his free time, he works with kids who might be struggling, both bullies and the bullied. He teaches them how to work through their emotions with boxing, exercise, and other healthy habits. His presentation will be really interactive.

Ayinde Howell is an actor, entrepreneur, and executive chef. He started his first restaurant, Hillside Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop when he was only 20 years old. He blasted hip hop music and made food that *he* wanted to eat. And that turned out to be really successful. His sandwich shop became a gathering spot for artists and traveling musicians like Erykah Badu and Common. The shop eventually turned into a local group of restaurants (Plum Bistro et al.) that his sister now runs. He’ll be cooking comfort food, including Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Texas BBQ Rubbed Seitan, and Mini Sloppy Joes.

Dr. Baxter Montomgery is a cardiologist from Houston who works with chronically ill patients, showing them how to improve their health through a healthy diet. There are some big names in the healthy vegan community, but one of the people who has been working at this for more than ten years is right here in Texas.

Christy Morgan, The Blissful Chef, is an Austinite who trained in macrobiotic cooking at the Natural Epicurean. She’s made a reputation for herself cooking healthy food that doesn’t taste “healthy.” Christy has teamed up with PlantFusion to show us how to make healthy, protein-packed snacks that everyone will love.

Vegan superstar Isa Chandra Moskowitz (you might have heard of her!) was kind enough to come back for a second year. She’ll be making cashew-based cheesecake. And, yes, there will be samples!

And finally, we’re really excited to have Colleen Patrick-Goudreau come this year to give a presentation she calls “From Excuse-itarian to Vegan.” If you think you could be vegan, except for cheese! Or that it’s too expensive/hard/limiting to be vegan, Colleen will guide you through whatever’s keeping you back. She’s that wise, funny friend you wish you had.

Omowale Adewale is a boxer and his presentation is going to be interactive? Does that mean he is going to hit me?

Are you going to insult his mother?

I do make a lot of “your mom” jokes so I’m kind of worried. How do I force people to attend Colleen’s lecture?

>>see below

Will there be tacos?

Arlo’s is serving tacos. And there will be also be nachos, donuts, funnel cake (from two vendors!), cannolis, and lots of ice cream.

Are there going to bands and other entertainment, like maybe interpretive dance? I’d love to express my rutabaga love.

There will be guided mediation by the lake. We should have the schedule for the bands, speakers, cooking demos, kids’ activities, and mediation up within the next few days.

What logistical info do I need to know, is there parking? Will I need cash? Can I bring my dogs? Are you annoyed that I’m not just looking at the FAQ section of your website?

There are a few parking lots near Fiesta Gardens and street parking to the west of the park. But everyone knows that biking, car pooling, and taking public transportation are way cooler than driving a car all by yourself, so we recommend people do that. In theory, you could even canoe up to the event, though I don’t think I know anyone *that* cool.

Bringing cash is a pretty good idea. A lot of our vendors will have Four Square or other ways to take credit cards out in the world now, but cash is a lot more dependable. You never know when you’ll need to buy a Vitamix or a shirt from Herbivore Clothing. (Psst. Someone buy me a Vitamix!) We will have an ATM though if you’re like me and can’t ever remember to carry cash.

Please leave your dogs at home. We love animals, but with all the crowds and food, it’s just not a dog-friendly environment. To be clear: dogs will not be admitted into the park.

Canoeing to the event sure sounds like a challenge…hmm. OK, last question, what do you think people will be most to eat and do at the fest? Predictions?

I think funnel cake will be popular, because, well, it’s funnel cake. Unity Vegan Kitchen will be busy since this is their first appearance. They’re a new Austin food truck that serves comfort food. And everybody loves something new. Good Karma Kitchen should be popular, too, since they’re from out of town and serve gluten-free food. I’m hoping the Atkinson candy booth will draw a crowd, mostly because I love Chick-O-Stick, and they make it. And it’ll be a crying shame if there’s not a swarm of families at the kids’ area because there are some really great kids’ activities this year. (Don’t worry, Lazy Smurf, you can easily avoid that area.)

Ouch! I like kids, my street is full of them happily screaming their lungs out 24 hours a day.

Sometimes reading about animal sanctuaries can be really heartbreaking. SARA Animal Sanctuary, which is down by San Antonio, takes in all sorts of animals but mainly dogs that were abandoned or abused. There is probably no one I love more than my dogs so when I read their rescue stories about owners shooting their dogs or throwing them out of car windows I can hardly stand it. Dogs are just so full of love and and their need to please people can be overwhelming. They can be the best friend you ever had. It’s appalling that anyone could abuse that trust.

But lots of people do.

So we are really lucky that there are so many organizations like SARA animal sanctuary that will take the unadoptable, the abused, the anti-social, and the starving dogs and give them some food, medical treatment, and a place to live. If the animals they help can be socialized they do put them up for adoption. But many will have to live out their lives at the shelter.